Crashed Ethiopian plane carried at least 19 UN officials

March 11, 2019 — 11.03am

The Ethiopian Airlines plane that crashed on Sunday morning was carrying at least 19 United Nations officials, some of whom were en route to a major UN-sponsored environmental conference in Nairobi, Kenya.

The World Food Program, the UN Refugee Agency and the Food and Agriculture Organisation were among UN agencies reporting personnel losses.

Rescuers use mechanical diggers at the site of an Ethiopian Airlines crash, south of Addis Ababa, in which 157 died.Credit:AP

The casualty list also included a professor, the chief executive of a restaurant company and a Kenyan soccer official.

The World Food Program said seven of its employees died. The UN said six employees from its office in Nairobi and two each from its Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the International Telecommunications Union were killed. Addis Ababa and Nairobi are home to United Nations offices.

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French President Emmanuel Macron and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres are among those expected to attend the UN Environment Assembly, along with more than 4700 heads of state, ministers and executives.

Wreckage lies at the site where an Ethiopian Airlines flight crashed shortly after take-off from Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, killing all 157 on board.Credit:AP

Outcomes from the meeting, due to begin on Monday, are to set the global environmental agenda and boost chances of success in the Paris Agreement and 2030 Agenda, according to a UN press release on Sunday.

The Boeing 737 MAX 8 crashed shortly after take-off from Ethiopia's capital, killing all 157 on board and marking the second deadly accident in five months for the new version of the company's bestselling jet.

UN worker Joanna Toole, 36, from Devon, died in the crash. Credit:Facebook

The passenger list includes 32 Kenyans and 18 Canadians, the largest two groups by nationality, as well as seven British nationals.

The crash comes as "devastating news", Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a tweet. He said in a later statement that the nation was offering consular assistance and working with Ethiopian authorities.

Macron extended his condolences to the families of the victims, which the airline said included seven French nationals.

UN worker Joanna Toole, 36, from Exmouth in Devon, who was due to attend the UN Environment Assembly, was among the dead.

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She was a committed environmentalist and animal lover who worked for the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation, her father told the DevonLive website.

"Joanna was a very soft and loving person," Adrian Toole said. "She had never really wanted to do anything else but work in animal welfare since she was a child.

"Somehow that work took her into the international sphere.

"That involves a lot of travelling - although personally I never wanted her to be on a single one of those planes. Up until now she had been lucky."

He told the website she was a fervent environmentalist who had worked on animal welfare issues since she was a child.

"Joanna's work was not a job, it was her vocation," he said.

He said his daughter used to bring home pigeons and rats in need of care and had travelled to the remote Faroe Islands to try to stop whaling there.